The Uganda Publishing and Printing Corporation (UPPC) on Friday launched activities to mark 120 years of distinguished printing and publishing services to Uganda.
The launch took place at Golf Course Hotel, Kampala.
Haji Yunus Kakande, the Permanent Secretary Office of the President, represented Minister for Presidency, Hon. Milly Babirye Babalanda, who was the chief guest.
Delivering the Minister’s speech, Haj. Kakande said UPPC’s celebrations are a turning point for the institution to showcase what it is doing, what it is capable of producing and how it is structured to offer the best service to all categories of clients in the market.
“The celebrations are very timely, coming at the time when UPPC has just acquired very powerful and versatile equipment in form of the 4-colour printing machine and with plans to acquire the 5-colour machine,” he said, adding, “Other old machinery has been repaired or generally replaced. For this I thank the current leadership at the UPPC for solving most of the challenges that we had here.”
The newly acquired machinery, Haj. Kakande said, has propelled the UPPC into a world-class printer capable of handling any volume of work and maintaining the highest quality of outputs possible on the market.
“Even as the UPPC has brought itself to the highest standard possible in the printer industry; the potential clientele of the UPPC has been slow to respond to the Presidential directive that requires all the MDAs in Uganda to surrender all their printing jobs to the UPPC and the New Vision Printing and Publishing Corporation,” he said.
He urged public and private entities to support UPPC because supporting it means contributing to growth of the country.
“It is to curtail the hemorrhage of foreign exchange through external printing by individuals and local companies,” he noted.
“I, therefore, wish to appeal to the Managers of the MDAs and the Private Sector to consider partnering with the UPPC because of the above factors, including the more important reason that we now offer a standard, quick and competitive output, probably unmatched in the industry,” he added.
UPPC Acting Managing Director, Mr. Kenneth Oluka, said the breakfast launch was aimed at sharing the joy of the long journey with clients and stakeholders.
“We invited you here today not only to share with us the joy of this long journey but more importantly, to express our appreciation to those who have sustained us in business,” he said.
“We also wanted to showcase our printing and publishing products and services and to appraise you with the kind of printing solutions UPPC can offer.”
Mr. Oluka said the Corporation is leveraging the milestone to “tell you a story of our journey; a journey of 120 years of printing and publishing. This journey has sometimes been bumpy, but in most cases it has been steadfast.”
UPPC, the government chief printer, was started in 1902 by the colonial government and after independence, it became a department in the office of the president. In 1992, it was transformed into a state enterprise by an Act of Parliament.
As chief government printer, the Corporation’s main functions are; to provide printing and publishing services to the government ministries, departments, parastatals and to private individuals and organisations.
The corporation is mandated to print and publish all government legislation and documents, publish books, booklets or other publications which enhance the culture, welfare and unity of Uganda.
In other words, UPPC is mandated to print and publish legal documents for the general public.
Mr. Oluka noted that from the outset in 1902, UPPC has been instrumental in shaping Uganda’s printing industry and serving the government in printing and publishing laws (Acts, Bills, Statutory Instruments, Legal Notices, Ordinances, Orders), The Uganda Gazette, policy documents, information educational and communication documents, reports among others.
“UPPC’s success lies in the uniqueness of its mandate of security printing, and the corporation’s ability to deliver on it effectively. Throughout the 120 years, the Government Printer has contributed immensely to the printing of Uganda’s history, be it from the legal perspective by printing laws and the gazette or the printing of other historical documents, reports, and photographs, among others,” Mr Oluka said.
Mr. Oluka revealed that UPPC is in the process of digitizing the vast amount of information and documents in stores and building a national archive.
The Corporation is planning a number of celebratory activities in the coming months including; publishing a souvenir Magazine, a walk, a thanksgiving ceremony, a stakeholders’ dinner, exhibitions, hosting industrial institutions of learning, visiting legal institutions of learning, special parliament motion, carry out corporate social responsibility initiatives among others.